Officials reveal where Elk Grove child who tested positive for coronavirus goes to school
A young student in the Elk Grove Unified School District has tested positive for coronavirus, Sacramento County Health Department chief Dr. Peter Beilenson told The Sacramento Bee on Monday.
It appears two other members of the household have tested positive as well. That appears to be the most people yet in one household in the Sacramento area.
The student who has tested positive for CoVID-19 attends Maeola R. Beitzel Elementary School, according to a joint statement released Monday night by Elk Grove Unified, the Sacramento County Office of Education and Sacramento County Department of Health Services.
The elementary school student is at home and doing well, said Dr. Peter Beilenson, county health leader.
Elk Grove district officials initially scheduled a press conference at 4 p.m. to discuss the situation, but canceled the event. A spokesperson said district leaders instead were meeting with county health officers Monday evening.
Also on Monday, county public health officials issued new guidelines that shift efforts against the coronavirus from containment to mitigation. County public health officials and the county’s Office of Education will collaborate with the 13 school district superintendents to develop recommendations to implement the new state and county mitigation guidelines within the next two days, according to the news release.
The new cases now bring the number to 10 in the county who have contracted the virus as of Monday afternoon. The Elk Grove district, which includes some schools in south Sacramento, will remain closed this week.
Positive test confirmed earlier Monday
Elk Grove school officials released a statement Monday afternoon confirming the positive test, and saying the student appears to come from a home where two other family members had tested positive for the virus.
In its statement, Elk Grove said: “On Friday afternoon, March 6, 2020, the Sacramento County Public Health Department (SCPH) officials notified district officials that an Elk Grove Unified family had been put on quarantine due to two household members testing positive to CoVID-19.
“County Public Health Services officials notified the District that it should assume that the four children in the home who are also enrolled at two schools in the district had direct exposure to CoVID-19. District officials immediately responded to ask that the four students be prioritized for CoVID-19 testing. Sacramento County Public Health complied with the request and Elk Grove Unified was notified of the test results today, March 9, 2020.”
County health officials later confirmed the grammar school student had tested positive, but three siblings had tested negative.
“Today, district officials met with state and county public health officials to verify the above information and to take additional direction regarding appropriate next steps,” the district said in a press statement. “Elk Grove Unified will continue to update its community as we receive any new information from the state and county public health services.”
The diagnosis of a young person is rare; most cases of COVID-19 worldwide have been in adults. The virus has been particularly dangerous for the elderly, killing several residents of a nursing home near Seattle. A 7-year-old girl from New York City was recently diagnosed.
County health officials on Monday said they will no longer ask people who come into contact with an infected person to immediately self-quarantine themselves for 14 days.
“With the shift from containment to mitigation, it is no longer necessary for someone who has been in contact with someone with COVID-19 to quarantine for 14 days,” health officials wrote. “This applies to the general public, as well as health care workers and first responders.
“However, if they develop respiratory symptoms, they should stay home in order to protect those who are well.”
The county also discouraged people from calling 911 or going to emergency rooms unless “they believe that they are extremely sick or their life is in imminent danger. Other emergencies are still occurring, and emergency resources must be available to address all of them, not just COVID-19.”
The virus, a new variant of an existing strain, has been spreading globally since the initial outbreak in China two months ago. China still has the majority of cases, at 81,000, but its caseload has nearly flattened in the past week. Globally, there are 33,000 cases reported outside of China. Of those, 605 had been recorded in the United States as of Monday evening, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracking website.
Also Monday, Beilenson said a high school student in the district being tested for coronavirus tested negative for the illness. With that test now in hand, county health and Elk Grove school officials are moving forward with allowing the Sheldon High School boy’s basketball team to play in the CIF Northern California regional tournament, Beilenson said.
Health officials said that because the ill student is in grammar school, Sheldon should be cleared to play, he said.
Elk Grove is the only school district in the state to shut down because of the virus. Gov. Gavin Newsom warned this weekend that it might not be the last.
With thousands of school children out of school for a week, some parents left work early to supervise them at home.
Children were at the park and taking walks in their neighborhoods. When a Bee reporter knocked on doors, a handful of children were home alone.
Abdul Samy Rahmani of South Sacramento was home with his four children who attend schools in district: one sixth-grader, one middle schooler and two in high school.
His daughter, Sosan Rahmani, who attends Isabelle Jackson Elementary School just a block away, spent the day at home thinking of all the work she had left to do at school.
“It’s makes me sad that I’m not in school,” she said.
Her older sister, Sadaf, said she’s concerned about her upcoming finals, but thinks the school closures were important to protect her and her Florin High classmates from the virus.
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Officials reveal where Elk Grove child who tested positive for coronavirus goes to school."